John comes with 24 years of experience – as a designer and a landscape installer!  His specialty is hardscapes and we are very excited to have him on board! 

Check out our Landscaping Page for more information on our design services!  Even if you don’t need a landscape plan drawn up, our landscape consultations are a very valuable service!  Give us a call and you can discuss your landscaping needs with Kristin or John!

Our plant lists have all been updated with the plants available now in 2010, and our Plant Search has many of these plants on it and will be soon updated with many more.

The following article is being submitted by Heidi Brosseau – our retail manager.

I am so excited about the 2010 Perennial Plant Associations pick for Plant of the Year!  Baptisia australis, aka False or Wild Indigo.  This is one of my all time favorite perennials.  It is a hardy native prairie perennial that has never let me down.  It reappears each year as a strong, healthy shrub-like clump.  Beautiful small blue-green leaves on sturdy stems end in tapered spikes of indigo-blue flowers in early summer.  The showy flowers turn into green pods that kind of blend in until late summer and fall when they start to dry and turn black. That’s when this plant becomes interesting to children (big and small) because the dry pods rattle when you shake them.  If you put this plant in a location where a stiff wind might stir it in late summer and early fall, then the False Indigo will rustle and rattle for you all on its own!

Baptisia prefers well drained soil and full sun but will thrive in a location that only offers the hot afternoon sun.  The flowers and the pods make it a great plant for cutting.  It attracts butterflies and resists deer browse.  Hardy to zones 4-9 with a mature height and width of 3′-4′

Good companion plants:  Great in front of something like Joe-Pye-Weed (Eupratorium), planted near Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia), Yarrow (Achillea) or any of the Coneflowers (Echinacea).

Other things I must mention:  There are some very new and exciting varieties of Baptisia available that stretch the color palette of this plant into yellows, purples and even maroons.  If you are interested in Baptisia australis be sure you check out some of these other varieties that are sure to become favorites as well.  Carolina Moonlight, Midnite Praireblues, Solar Flare, Starlite Prairieblues, and Twilite Prairieblues.  These will be available here at the nursery this season!

As always – be sure to try our Plant Search tool located right on our home page.   We have most of our trees and shrubs on the Search Tool and are getting more and more of our perennials featured here. 

Most positions involve work with production of plant materials in our container plant production and field production areas as well as multi-tasking by assisting our retail customers as the need dictates during various times of the season.  Versatility is extremely valuable.  We do have one job available for a retail sales and shrub/perennial care position.  The ability to work some weekend days is mandatory – for all positions.  Ability to work in all weather conditions is also necessary.  Pay is commensurate with experience in the horticultural industry and general life work experience.

I harvested some onions and radishes, planted some more string beans, and Heidi and I planted some sun flower plants that we had started from seed this spring.  They are already a few feet high and we look forward to the classic look of the sunflowers later this summer as well as a food source for all of the birds we have here at the nursery.

The first year (last year) of putting the landscape fabric down was a little work (and expense) to do, but it will last for us for several years and it makes the maintenance of the garden so much easier, from input to weed control and actual harvesting.  As my cucumbers vine out, they stay on top of the fabric and you never have a cucumber that’s been laying in the dirt.   I have it laid out in such a way that will make it easy to rotate my location for tomatos and peppers as well.  If anyone wants to see how we actually have this laid out is welcome to stop by the nursery here and take a look.

In the photo you will see Gary standing on an area of dead grass – this is my soon-to-be blueberry area.  We will be amending with lots of soil mix and peat, and planting blueberries.  We’ll have a few berries this year – but wait until next year!

Here’s Gary’s recipe – Enjoy!

 Crust:   1 cup butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup brown sugar.   Mix all together as you would for a pie crust, pat out evenly into a 9 x 13 greased pan, bringing it up the sides 3/4 of an inch.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Filling:  6 egg yolks – well beaten, 1 cup cream, 2 cups white sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. vanilla, 2 tblsp. cornstarch, 5 cups of finely chopped rhubarb.  Mis this together and pour over the hot, baked crust.  Then bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until set in the middle.  Cover with merinque.

Merinque:  6 egg whites – well beaten, 12 tblsp. of sugar, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 tsp vanilla.   Beat together well until stiff.  Spread over filling and sprinkle with coconut or chipped almonds (optional).  Bake 325 degrees until nicely browned.

On Monday, if you stop in and catch Leif  – ask him for his birthday present to you – a birthday Gift Certificate for $5. 

Happy Birthday, Leif.

Welcome Gary and Happy Birthday!

Being a certified garden center enables us to better serve the customers regarding their plant choices and questions.  If there are certain Proven Winner plants that you are specifically looking for – please contact us.  We can’t carry every plant, but we would do our best to obtain requested plants.

Congratulations, Amy & Nathan.